Here’s to Dustin! Background: I need my daily newspapers, really need them, but several weeks ago the New York Times stopped coming. Yes, the bill had been paid. It just stopped coming. So, I called customer service and got a sweet-sounding robot. Day-after-day I “talked” to her. Eventually I got an email that my complaint had been “escalated,” whatever that might mean, but I still didn’t get my daily delivery. Bureaucracy! You know the feeling?
So last Thursday, this old paperboy and milkman was up at 4:00. I sat on the porch waiting. Here come the headlights. Dustin pulls up. I walk toward his car. He pops out and says, “I knew you were going to be out here one of these mornings!” This guy is good. When I shared the specifics of my case, he said he’d get on it. True to his word, every morning since he’s bringing me the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Wall Street Journal, and yippee! The New York Times. Kudos to Dustin!
Why do I need old-style physical papers? Why do I need hundreds of non-religious books? If I presume to teach what the precious little we can know about God, I must try to know what’s going on outside my Christian life. Seminary professor Martin Scharlemann once said, “A pastor’s job is to interpret reality theologically.” The 20th century theologian Karl Barth put it this way. “Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.”
These days some people are using the Bible to support half-truths, conspiracy theories, and stupidity. Bureaucracies don’t care. People can. Thank you, Dustin!
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